Well-known Member

Really interesting review. I saw this projector in action last year at @Rickyj @ Kalibrate 's forum day and thought it looked great.

From what I understand it is the same lens as in the 550ES, so if the laser light source wasn't of perceived value that would be a more economical way to get the same lens.

I'm suprised that the SDR calibrated contrast was as low as reported in the review - is that right? If so it is a fair bit worse than the non-laser SXRD units.

Intrigued as to your thoughts on the validity of colorimeter measurements (even from a Klein) from a laser lightsource without having the colorimeter profiled to a high end (5nm or better) spectro on the display in question. From what I understood they're not to be trusted without having been profiled.

Active Member

Really interesting review. I saw this projector in action last year at @Rickyj @ Kalibrate 's forum day and thought it looked great.

From what I understand it is the same lens as in the 550ES, so if the laser light source wasn't of perceived value that would be a more economical way to get the same lens.

I'm suprised that the SDR calibrated contrast was as low as reported in the review - is that right? If so it is a fair bit worse than the non-laser SXRD units.

Intrigued as to your thoughts on the validity of colorimeter measurements (even from a Klein) from a laser lightsource without having the colorimeter profiled to a high end (5nm or better) spectro on the display in question. From what I understood they're not to be trusted without having been profiled.

Click to expand...

I thought the Klein K10-A colorimeters used in the AVF reviews were always profiled to a spectroradiometer for the display in question.

Active Member

I can't remember where I read (probably at the other similarly named forum) that the 260/360 lens was different. But I might be mis-remembering.

Click to expand...

Everything I have read (although who knows how accurate that info is!), reports that the 260/360/550/760 all share the same updated or improved lens.

It has definitely been reported in Sony press info from Cedia that all three new models (260/360/updated 550) have an improved lens and support for HLG and HDR auto-switching etc. The 550 received these as a running change to production and existing owners got the software changes as an update.

I have no idea if there has been an actual physical change to the lens design, elements, coatings etc., or just Sony enforcing a tighter QA regime at whoever is making these for them. They do claim improved focus and stability though.

As the Oppo is a "black box" in this context (ie doing HDR conversion to SDR) - is there any way of knowing if it is actually decoding the Dolby Vision layer and flattening it down to SDR, or if it is just using the HDR10 base layer for HDR->SDR conversion?

I >thought< it couldn't do the decoding (at least not for sources connected to the HDMI input of the Oppo). Might be wrong though.

Well-known Member

Hoping the price drops relatively quickly so this can be my next PJ. Great review, thanks.

Click to expand...

Yeah I hope the price drops to like £2,000 or something so I can buy it too

I would also hope that the lens in this is not the same as the cheaper models as others have said.

Also I don't like what Phil said about the clunky lens memory system and how slow and awkward it is to change from one to another - it just be a single remote click and cycle through all saved settings with *nothing* appearing on screen. Not good enough from Sony on this point.

Active Member

I could never afford anything like this but such a shame that the 3D aspect was not reviewed again especially as a lot of projector owners are still.into 3D.

Click to expand...

I find it extremely upsetting that the 3D aspect was not covered in this review considering this is a Sony laser projector made for home use and the 3D might be amazing because of the brightness the laser will achieve.
It should actually be mandatory that whomever reviews a gadget can test all of its functions, and with all due respect, 3D is still pretty big, no matter what eveyone keeps trying to tell us. What is next? Not review blu-ray upscalling, because 4K is the future. Disappointing.
Hope the review can get updated to include the 3D component.

EditorStaff Member

I find it extremely upsetting that the 3D aspect was not covered in this review considering this is a Sony laser projector made for home use and the 3D might be amazing because of the brightness the laser will achieve.
It should actually be mandatory that whomever reviews a gadget can test all of its functions, and with all due respect, 3D is still pretty big, no matter what eveyone keeps trying to tell us. What is next? Not review blu-ray upscalling, because 4K is the future. Disappointing.
Hope the review can get updated to include the 3D component.

Click to expand...

We can only review what we have in front of us and Sony did not supply glasses and the glasses we do have here, didn't work because they are so old. Manufacturers do not send the glasses out so there is not a lot we can do in that respect and it is the same for all the reviewers out there. Sadly the industry would appear to want 3D to just go away now.

Active Member

I would also hope that the lens in this is not the same as the cheaper models as others have said.

Click to expand...

As the chassis and light source for this model are totally different to the lower lamp based models, it stands to reason to me that the lens would be a superior unit to the lower models.
The optical block is (by virtue of the above) highly likely to be a very different design to the 550/360/260.

Active Member

We can only review what we have in front of us and Sony did not supply glasses and the glasses we do have here, didn't work because they are so old. Manufacturers do not send the glasses out so there is not a lot we can do in that respect and it is the same for all the reviewers out there. Sadly the industry would appear to want 3D to just go away now.

Click to expand...

I don’t mean to be critical, because if anything, this is my number one site for hardware reviews, but once again with all due respect, I see 3D as any other function of this projector. You weren’t sent a blu-ray player or uhd player or even 4k blu-ray discs to test the quality of the projector or how it resolves hdr. I think there is a general assumption that whoever is reviewing a piece of equipment will be able to give it a proper test. As for the glasses being old, I am sure you have bought better hdmi cables troughout the years to keep being able to test higher bandwidth components. You wouldn’t have said you couldn’t test 4k or hdr because your available cables were to old and you weren’t provided a newer one.
As for 3D being discarded or ignored by the industry, you being part of it and not having reviewed the 3D in this, are actually perpetuing that same notion.

Active Member

I don't watch a lot of 3D, but the option is there in Sony projectors and as such I furnished myself with 4 pairs of Sony 500A glasses as soon as I could.
I have to say that RF 3D glasses, (and Sony ones at that) are readily available on eBay and possibly Amazon (haven't checked) for not much cash.

As for 3D going away, well in TVs it needs to, as they were never large enough to do it justice anyway. (They always looked like pop up books surrounded by the real 3D of my living room to me).
Home projection is the natural home of 3D in my opinion.

So a report on the quality/effectiveness of it in this model would have been welcome to me.

Well-known Member

As the chassis and light source for this model are totally different to the lower lamp based models, it stands to reason to me that the lens would be a superior unit to the lower models.
The optical block is (by virtue of the above) highly likely to be a very different design to the 550/360/260.

Click to expand...

Yes and he did also mention the extra weight of 20Kg which is most likely to do with heavy glass... although it could be other heavy components like power supply or laser assembly (no idea if this is heavy or not). I do know high quality professional camera lenses like Canon L-series are heavy though... much heavier than cheap consumer models, so I am sure this is similar.

Active Member

Yes and he did also mention the extra weight of 20Kg which is most likely to do with heavy glass... although it could be other heavy components like power supply or laser assembly (no idea if this is heavy or not). I do know high quality professional camera lenses like Canon L-series are heavy though... much heavier than cheap consumer models, so I am sure this is similar.

Click to expand...

Whilst I wouldn't think that the laser unit itself weighs much (being just laser diodes and all) I can imagine the extra 6kgs (over the 260/360/550) is a combination of the extra cooling for the laser and processors, maybe 1.5 - 2kg at most (using a Zotac GTX 1080Ti Amp! Extreme as a basis for the weight needed for some serious air cooling on a serious processor) and the other 4KG is not a stretch for a quality glass lens.

Well-known Member

Whilst I wouldn't think that the laser unit itself weighs much (being just laser diodes and all) I can imagine the extra 6kgs (over the 260/360/550) is a combination of the extra cooling for the laser and processors, maybe 1.5 - 2kg at most (using a Zotac GTX 1080Ti Amp! Extreme as a basis for the weight needed for some serious air cooling on a serious processor) and the other 4KG is not a stretch for a quality glass lens.

Click to expand...

Yeah, for example the 40ES only weighs 10kgs with its crappy plastic lens.

Standard Member

From your review.... "And if you were well-heeled we would probably also steer you away from the JVC DLA-Z1 as it is more than double the price and doesn’t offer anything the Sony can’t do better. "

You have to be kidding!!
I own the JVC Z1/RS4500 . My friend has the Sony 760ES to which he loaned me for a couple of weeks to compare to my Z1/RS4500 in my theatre.....i have NO IDEA how you arrived at the above conclusion..

Dont get me wrong, the Sony 760 is a terrific projector,.......... BUT really!!

EditorStaff Member

From your review.... "And if you were well-heeled we would probably also steer you away from the JVC DLA-Z1 as it is more than double the price and doesn’t offer anything the Sony can’t do better. "

You have to be kidding!!
I own the JVC Z1/RS4500 . My friend has the Sony 760ES to which he loaned me for a couple of weeks to compare to my Z1/RS4500 in my theatre.....i have NO IDEA how you arrived at the above conclusion..

Dont get me wrong, the Sony 760 is a terrific projector,.......... BUT really!!

Click to expand...

Yes, I stand by my assessment. You are obviously entitled to yours. It doesn't do anything the Sony can't and at more than double the price, I would recommend the Sony every time. I obviously don't own either and couldn't afford them, so I don't have that bias to deal with, I'm being objective. That again probably doesn't sit with what you think and that is fine. I'm glad you love your JVC - it is a fantastic piece of kit and won our innovation award last year.

AVForums Editor
ISF and THX Certified AV CalibratorFollow me on Twitter! - My personal opinions are not those of AVForums or any other related website.